Christmas is just around the corner, and Johnny Maurice...

Christmas is just around the corner, and Johnny Maurice Eddins bought a coat for his mother and some jewelry for his sister, according to the Broward Sheriff`s Office.

Nothing unusual about that -- except that Eddins used someone else`s credit card number to buy the gifts and other merchandise from a Clearwater mail order firm, sheriff`s spokesman Jim Leljedal said Friday.

A clerk at Home Shopping Network, the mail order firm, contacted authorities earlier this week after discovering a discrepancy in the address of a credit card holder. Investigators found that shipments charged to four different credit accounts were being shipped to Eddins` Fort Lauderdale apartment, Leljedal said.

Eddins, 20, was charged with grand theft Thursday at his home in the 1400 block of Northwest Sixth Street when he signed for a package delivered by two undercover sheriff`s detectives dressed as United Parcel Service employees.

The package had been charged to the account of ``D. Thomas.`` Eddins was arrested after signing his name as ``Danny Thomas`` on the delivery form, Leljedal said.

The value of the shipment was $169, but detectives said other shipments worth more than $1,000 have been delivered to Eddins, including a computer, typewriter and two phone answering machines. Some of the merchandise was intended for gifts and some was sold, Leljedal said.